Hopefully you all will see this post, or something similar to it going around a LOT today.  Spread the word on your own sites (verbatim if you want, as I am), and please, donate to this worthy cause!  This comes from Lora Innes, the driving force and organizer behind the whole Comic Creators Alliance!

—–

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Monday, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. To participate, we formed the Comic Creator’s Alliance–a group of over eighty comic book creators (both web and print) who volunteered our artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause. You may not know it, but there are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide- more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year. Unlike slavery in the 19th century, what is happening today is happening in secret. So it won’t end until awareness is raised, and people like you and me take a stand.

So here’s what we did: each creator contributed an original drawing of one of our own female characters, and combined them into a single wallpaper image. The wallpaper features characters from The Phoenix Requiem, Girls with Slingshots, Earthsong, Looking for Group, Shadowgirls, The Uniques and four IDW Publishing titles: Fallen Angel, The Dreamland Chronicles, Love & Capes and The Dreamer, and lots, lots more! Donate today to download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper. The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from January 11th – 24th. All proceeds will be split evenly between Love146 and Gracehaven House- two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime.

To learn more about the Comic Creator’s Alliance visit www.comicalliance.weebly.com.  To learn more about the problem, visit http://love146.org/slavery. (Note: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)

—–

The wallpaper looks AWESOME! Even if it’s not something you want on your desktop, it’s something you should buy on principle. I already have the thing since I was a participant, and I’m still going to donate!

Ever since Keenspot announced its dissolution, there has been much chatter on the web condemning comic collectives. The gripe is that Keenspot, the first, elite, webcomic publisher, decided to announce that they would no longer be accepting new members, and that the majority of comics would have to find a new home.  While I am not privy to the Crosby’s business outside of my dealings with the Xyliatales website, I understand Keenspot’s decision to focus on in-house properties (though I am perturbed at their actions regarding Kel). It’s a business move. Comics that are not making them money (or are not updating, or are not related by genre or audience) need to be dropped. Why? How dare traitorous Keenspot do this to all those comics that had been there for years? Because Keenspot is a publisher. It is also a collective. And a host. But it is these things IN THAT ORDER. The money comes first, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The web is a much different place now than it was over 10 years ago.

But I’m not really writing this article to talk about the Keenspot “fiasco.” I’m writing this to clarify some terms that are being used synonymously when they are quite different indeed. Since I started off with Keenspot, I suppose I might as well define what I’m talking about with “publisher” here:

A publisher is any business that creates products in large quantities to be sold (and in the case of online properties, quite often distributed). In Keenspot’s case, what was sold was pageviews. Those ads you saw on every page when you visited, those made Keenspot money. Keenspot took percentages from the Swag store and sold ad slots in the header.  The ads not only paid for the hosting costs of all those comics, but also made the Crosbys money.  A business is not magnanimous. What properties do not make money are only a drain on resources, and must be cut loose.  Since Keenspot was the first webcomic publisher, I understand how the dissolution of the network can upset those of us who still remember dreaming about “being Spotted,” but again, the web has changed.

Keenspot was (going to be using the past-tense here) also a collective, but only in an accidental sense of late. A collective is a group of people with the same, common interest who cooperate for the benefit of all. In short, members do better together than they would apart. A collective has nothing to do with revenue in a business sense. If money is made, it’s either kept by the person who makes it or is shared equally. Unlike a business, a working collective requires cooperative members, not just good products!  To visualize the difference between a publisher and collective, take a gander at Keenspot sites as compared to SpiderForest sites. SpiderForest is a collective (and the wonderful place that hosts my comics!) What do you notice? The focus on the comic and members, not SELLING a product.  Everyone self-publishes their own work. Is one better than the other? Well, that really depends on what you’re looking for! Just remember than a collective ≠ publisher!

Now in that previous paragraph, I mentioned that SpiderForest hosts my comic. So SpiderForest is not only a collective (cooperating, self-hosted sites), but ALSO a host. Hosts do exactly what they say: they provide a webpage and server space for comics. A host, however, is under NO obligation to commit to the betterment of the group. A host provides a service only, perhaps for a fee and perhaps not, and that’s where the relationship ends.  Examples of webcomic hosts include ComicGenesis and DrunkDuck. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “But Kez, both CG and DD have these completely AWESOME communities and we help each other out by cross-linking and forum posting and stuff!” Well, sure, yeah, but the host isn’t doing that…YOU are.   The host has no obligation to provide forums, and even if they do, it’s your choice to go there or not.

The last classification I’m going to mention is what we call affiliations. This is tight, exclusive relationship between a SMALL group comics committed to sharing traffic, who are not part of a collective (or simply a stronger relationship between certain members of a collective. What matters is that it’s exclusive).  An affiliation is more than a link exchange because of the commitment.  A great, recent example is Webcomic Bucket.  Some affiliations result in communities, some actually turn into collectives when the affiliations grow large enough.  The biggest difference in my opinion between affiliations and collectives is often the NAME. Collectives are branded, ex, I am a SpiderForest creator, my comics are SpiderForest comics. The collective may come first sometimes, and indeed, the SpiderForest header is at the TOP of the great majority of SF sites. In affiliations, there is little or no branding. If there is branding, it is always given less priority than the comic itself. No members of Webcomic Bucket proudly state their comic is a “A Webcomic Bucket Comic!”  There’s also the matter of shared resources. In a collective, members may rise or fall together because everyone is sharing their audience. In an affiliation, people may come and go, and it’s no big deal. Affiliations are more independent than co-dependent.

Anyone reading through this by now ought to notice quite a bit of overlap in these terms.  Many places can be listed under multiple names. Keenspot was a publisher, collective AND host; Spiderforest is a collective and host; ComicGenesis/DrunkDuck/SmackJeeves/WebcomicsNation/ComicSpace are hosts.  I want to reiterate here that I am not slamming any site or group for being one or the other term here. There IS no “better,” because it all depends on your goals.  This is article is just about classification. As a member of the SpiderForest Webcomic Collective, I got SICK of people bashing the term “collective” because of their fervor over The Keenspot Decision. Hence, I was inspired. Enjoy!

I dove headfirst into iStrip doing a website commission for The Sons Comic, by Daniel Escobedo. iStrip has been around in one form or another at least since 2005. It’s free, I know a few comics that use it (NN4B has since changed over to wordpress/webcomic, and I thought Crowfeathers used it at one time, not sure currently), and it is highly customizable. It also has a online interface for site/archive administration, news posting, etc. It works as advertised. However, I quickly found that the system was incredibly unintuitive. The read-me’s were a tome that took me ages to go through–because there was an incredibly in-depth explanation into EACH part of iStrip.

I have few rules in web development and design, but the most important one is just MAKE IT SIMPLE. iStrip installation and customization I found far more difficult compared to ComicPress customization. It doesn’t help that the iStrip admin is fugly as hell and hasn’t been updated in years. The system works, but damn is it complicated and clunky. It’s basically a wordpress system without half of the automation. It also uses the Smarty system, which seems to just be PHP with a different set of codes that you have to learn all over again. I don’t mind tag systems (I started out on ComicGenesis), but this…this whole system pissed me off. I felt like I was riding a bike with a stick in the spokes, and damn, I’ve use a LOT of CMSs over the years. But it is quite possible this is all just my personal, non-reproducible, experience. I can be thick when switching gears, I’ll admit. I will most definitely not recommend iStrip or use it again though.

What iStrip offers:

Instant archiving with properly named files (if you can find the damn script). It’s hidden and barely mentioned, but it exists.

Online news posting interface

Queue ability (but not able to upload multiple files to go live the same day. You have to date them different, and can’t retroactively add files without using the instant archiving script…which erases your news posts…)

Dropdown functionality

Template systems, much like Wordpress

Typical navigation ability (first, previous, next, last, as well as a random button)

And more. It’s all listed on the site.

What it Requires:

You’ll need  PHP/Apache capability, and patience. Lots and LOTS of patience.

You do NOT need a mySQL database, so this may be a system for people without the ability to make or maintain one.

Bottom Line:

I do not recommend it. There are systems much easier to use, with upkeep and support (the main site for iStrip’s creator is non-functional, so I take it to mean there is NO support) , and with better, more up-to-date features. I give it a 5/10. It works, but it’s just not worth the hassle for what you get.

You can download it here if you want it though, and best of luck!

In a previous post I mentioned that I most assuredly would not mind spreading the news about any comics celebrating the 5th birthday or beyond. Senshuu is the first one to take me up on the offer! About a month ago, her comic Millennium turned SIX years old.  While she started it over from scratch, it is only up to 13 pages currently, so now is the perfect time to jump [back] in. Updates on Friday! Here’s the synopsis of the story from the “info” page:

In this age of a confused young world, the sages have felt the spirit-plane stirring, tempesting as it had not for centuries. The Senshuu, the embodiment of the dissension that comes every thousand years, is on the wake!

Having known and anticipated this since his youngest years, a boy prepares to set out to meet with this Senshuu and set right what may go wrong…

One of my favorite things about comics that have been around for a long time is the “then and now” shot. I asked Senshuu to send me the page she was most proud of a few years back, and the one she is most proud of now.  Here they are!

THEN (click each to go to the page on her site):

And NOW, a 2-page spread:

In her own words, “the new is…different.” A very awesome different! There are times I dearly envy those brave enough to go back and restart comics *looks at her own archives* eep. If you’re interested in reading the original version of Millennium, it’s still available too!

If anyone else has an impressive anniversary, please let me know and I’ll write up something to let any readers here know!

This past weekend, my sister and I, Alex of Garanos, Taka of Taka Comics, Peter and Katie of Bardsworth, Shiro of The Cow Comic and Taka and Shiro’s buddy Ethan all attended a 3-day convention in Pittsburgh, PA called “Steel City Con.” My debriefs are put up here in a semi bare-all fashion in the hopes that other people can use my bad experiences to make sure they have a GOOD experience. I condense it all into advice and figures. This is not an article comparing how anyone else did, just the result of my own convention experiments to see if a small-time comic creator grad student can successfully make money at this kind of thing.

Pete’s con write-up (has more pics, including everyone’s table set up!)

Taka’s write-up (includes our trip to the zombie exhibit in Monroeville Mall!)

The Good

We met so many great, wonderful awesome people who made the whole thing worth it. I made so many con buddies, exchanged tons of business cards, and made friends with some stellar artists. The convention center was new, the staff were friendly and helpful, there were free coffee refills, plenty of parking, and the bathrooms were CLEAN. There were good crowds on Saturday, and even on Sunday despite the football game.

The Bad

The con was mis-marketed. It was NOT a comic convention, regardless of being a “toy and comic book show.” It was for toy collectors, and every single indie artist or writer there had a horrible, horrible time selling anything…that I’m aware of.  No one came to buy “new” things. They wanted toys, collectibles (like movie props) or funny T-shirts.  I am deeply in the red after this convention. I had anticipated a much better weekend for sales, at LEAST to break even. We did not even do that. I will NOT be attending this show again, and I don’t recommend it for any indie.I barely made back the cost of the table.

The Friday crowd was non-existent, and the crowds the rest of the weekend were FAR lower than advertised. This was the first year the con was held at the new convention center.

The Ugl–I mean, Lessons

Not every convention will be good. Some will be bad for sales, and it won’t even be your fault; it’s just the wrong crowd. You could have perfectly good merchandise and no one will buy, or even give you a moment of their time to TRY to pitch your story, because they are not there for you. Take a deep breath, because you’ll do better the next time. Don’t get disheartened! Take what you’ve learned and apply it to the next convention.

Don’t try and sell your merchandise for absurdly low prices at a bad convention to try and get sales. It is better to wait for a convention where you can get what they are worth. You may have money in your pocket THEN, but you won’t make back what you put in to get the merchandise in the first place.

When at ever possible, split costs between people. A bunch of us split a hotel room. Taka and co. car-pooled. Attend conventions where you have friends or relatives and stay at their place for free. Split booths or tables if possible.

In a large convention, it is VERY important to have both horizontal and vertical displays of what you are selling. People don’t want to look down, they want to look straight. Have your best selling or most eye-catching stuff at eye level, because it will make people pause and look longer.  You can do this with easels, portable walls, boxes, etc. We did not have this at my table, so we took our biggest box and draped T-shirts on it.

Inspect all merchandise before it sells. Don’t sell bad merch. I learned this the hard way. My best-selling T’s had defects. I was so pissed off you could not imagine. Discovered them the DAY OF the con.

Be original. Don’t be the odd, anti-social artist behind the table. People will NOT want to talk with you. Good hygiene, people. Belts. I swear, if I saw the crack of the guy across the row from me ONE MORE TIME I was going to either to freak out or hurl. Perhaps both. Above all, just LOOK approachable. Look normal. At more traditional “comic book” shows, your cosplay of an anime character may just scare people away. It’s important to look memorable, but also to look normal, ok?

Have XXL shirts. Period. I would have made way more shirt sales than I did if I had had XXL.

(more lessons from previous cons here)

What I Sold

T-shirts only. I sold 5 zombie-related T’s, 2 No Aerial Hunting T’s, 2 Polymath T’s and 1 $2 sketch. Two books also sold, but both were to friends who only wanted to support the indie artists, so I don’t know whether to count that. One of the two had his own comic book, so I went and bought his in return so that neither of us really made a profit. The other guy, super-friend “Fluffy” was just awesome enough to buy stuff because he was awesome. I sold zero prints, but gave 2 away. Also gave away 2 books in return for some reciprocal swag. Net for this con therefore barely broke $150, when over $500 was spent for table, gas, food, hotel and merch. At least now I have plenty left over to sell at the next convention.

The whole fact that I barely sold any comic books at all, but a fair amount of T’s really just proves my hypothesis going into this convention though: it’s very important to have merchandise that people who have never read your comic (and who are not even interested in…) can consider buying. None of my T’s had anything to do with my comic. They had to do with zombies, individualism, banning a cruel hunting practice, and fighting. If you are interested in going to conventions to make money, be aware there are probably many things you could make that would sell better than your comic alone! DIVERSIFY.

Ok, and now for the awesome people that I met!

The 501st Garrison Carida

These guys (and girls, I know there were a couple) are without a doubt, the most awesome group of Imperial Costumers (as in, Star Wars) of all time. I’m still not quite sure how it happened, but we made friends with “Fluffy” the Biker Scout and kind of were strangely adopted by this group.  Somehow we got invited out to Don Pablo’s with the gang, where surprise of surprises, Peter Mayhews, “Chewbacca,” the guest of honor of the convention was ALSO the guest of honor at the dinner. WOW! So cool! The guy is fer-reaking tall, but totally nice! I didn’t talk with him at all, but damn, the troupe was on a first-name basis with him.  Again, WOW. I was like, 15 feet from him the whole night. Ok, Kez, enough celebrity worship. You’re not even THAT in to Star Wars!

The 2 women in this photo are 2 Iron Sirens, also guests at the con, and are not affiliated with the 501st.

The Lake Erie Pirates

These guys are TALENTED! I have never laughed so hard in my life as when “Jack Sparrow” strutted down the isle. The mannerisms and costumes of the entire gang were SPOT ON. And the props! DAMN! Awesome all-around.

Motorcyleboy Comics

There were very few indie comics at this con other than our group, but the most memorable of the rest was definitely Motorcycleboy! We met Sheila, her hubby and the writer Billy, and made fast friends. If you’re up for a gritty, realistic, poetic graphic novel done with traditional art, MCB is the comic for you! I have a copy now myself. WHEE!

Kevin R. Leen

This hilarious and marvelously talented artist was at the table to my right! Kevin had some of the most beautiful illustrations I’ve ever seen for Marvel and DC heroes. If you are looking for some fabulous artwork, check him out!

Sean Patrick Pence

Did I mention yet that I was completely out-classed by the tables surrounding me at this convention? No? Well if Kevin’s work wasn’t evidence enough, behind us sat Sean and his buddy (whose name I never got! EEP!) Sean is a master of colored pencil and ink portraits of celebrities, including Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, LotR and more! He gave me two AWESOME pictures of Indiana Jones, only my favorite movie hero of all time! (I named my dog after him, y’know!)

PK Cards: Chris, Daryl, Yoshinori, Dave and co.!

These guys had the most awesome booth set up EVER. I’m talking specialty gaming tables and chairs, TV’s, a digital set up for the artist….just…wow! I’m not even into table top card games and the like, but these guys had the best looking cards I’ve ever seen! The art was top-notch, way better than I what I usually see! I got to talk a lot to Yoshinori, an artist who did a large chunk of illustrations for the first card set. Got to watch him paint in Photoshop. OMG, made the scrawling I do look like sidewalk chalk art by 5-year-old.  Dave is also as big a Stargate as myself, and I wish him the best in the Air Force! (AVOID NORTH DAKOTA!). Chris and Daryl were phenomenally cool, and it was great to hang with them at the bar. I cannot believe I didn’t nab a picture with them, or at least me fawning at Nori’s feet, begging for tips.

Tod Allen Smith:

Tod sat right behind my table on the other isle in this convention, and is also affiliated with the 501st! Tod does sketch cards for comics like Iron Man and X-men, as well as some absolutely fabulous portraits. His art is totally stellar. Had I the money, I think I would have bought him out. He’s trying to sell some Iron Man 2 cards, details up on his DA page (click his name). Help an artist out, eh?

In the end, the fun times had made the convention worthwhile. It was the best time I’ve had in ages. I won’t be doing SCC again, but I do plan on finding out what other conventions these guys are all doing and seeing if I can’t do the same! There are a couple more people I met on here that I have not mentioned because I don’t have the box with all the extra swag in it! ARRGHH. I’ll edit this post when I get it back.

I leave you with….ggassssssssppppp!

So get yer huntin’ license and check out our applyin‘ page!

Or something very much less hick in better humor.  Sorry for the lack of articles, again. I’ve been very, very busy with grad school as well as multiple creative projects of my own. I’ve been sitting on that review of the CMS istrip, as well as a shout out to the TWCL awards (Go! Nominate!) . I am so behind. I suck.

The rest of this week ought to be absurdly busy for me, so I’m putting this up a day early. SpiderForest, that awesome community of webcomic artists and writers, accepts new members only twice annually, in June and December! For the first three weeks of December, we will be taking applications and we’re all excited to see who would like to join. SpiderForest isn’t elitist, but it is focused, and we don’t let in new members all the time because EACH MEMBER here votes on new additions. That’s a lot of work for all of us, and we want more members who are really interested in maintaining a quality comic–not to mention, being an ACTIVE member of the community. So, twice yearly, we open the doors and see who wants in.

I have been a member of SF for a couple years now. I miraculously got in, still don’t know how, but it’s a move I am still ecstatic as to have made! I came from ComicGenesis (a free host who, for what’s offered, got high marks in my review!), but I wanted a smaller group of more focused people. I wasn’t that good at making comics (still am not), but I had a drive to do better, all the time. A small group like this is very encouraging, you get more notice, there are no mandatory ads, but there is mandatory cross-promotion with our rotating header. Collectives increase your audience, and the QUALITY of your audience. It’s a great place to grow, and if you’ve been independant from the get-go, hosting yourself, going it alone, you might find VERY fast that being a member of a collective has a lot more opportunities for you without taking away from your freedoms.

Here is a list of current members and their comics. Feel free to contact any member to ask them about their experience. Clicking the text area will bring up a longer summary and their email addresses.

We have few requirements for those applying:

• The ability to tell a good story or joke, with a fitting style of art (check current comics hosted if this is too ambiguous).
• You must CURRENTLY be actively updating your comic at least once a week, or expect to return to schedule from hiatus upon acceptance.  Exceptions are made on a case-by-case basis (quality of the update is a determining factor).
• You must have at least 15 pages of your comic complete. NO EXCEPTIONS!
• You must show the desire to continue your comic, and the diligence to update it to schedule.

What SF offers you (taken from the apply page):

SpiderForest is a free, quality host that does not require you to place ads on your site. You are allowed to put up your own ads, and may keep all revenue. Many members use Project Wonderful.

SpiderForest grants you FTP access. This means you have direct and immediate control of your site, and may update images or webpages as you please.

You may use whichever archiving system you like. Most members use SF’s own ProPanda, a simple, easy-to-use PHP code that allows news posts, dropdowns, and commenting. Other members also use wordpress/comicpress and comicCMS.

You will receive tech assistance whenever necessary, even to the extent of building your site for you. HOWEVER! Having a webcomic means you should not only know how to make a comic, but also how to distribute it over the web yourself. Members will help you set up, but we will expect you to learn to code HTML in time, to be able to handle the majority of your site’s updating.

All new members will have a spiderforest.com address of their choice. If you have your own URL, you keep it, and any spiderforest.com address will forward to your site.

All members are required to have on their site, above the fold, a rotating banner of SpiderForest links. You will have immediate and free advertising on all SpiderForest sites, and an audience ready to read your work.

If you already have your own hosting and would like to be a member, you do not have to up and move to the SF server. Please note in your application if you would like to be a self-hosted member. You must be independently self-hosted and not a member of another comic collective or host.

What SF requires of members:

• Your main responsibility once accepted will be to simply update your comic with quality material in a consistent manner.  As your audience grows, you will expose all of them to all the other comics hosted here, and help everyone gain new readers.  Of course, we all realize life happens, hiatuses occur, and you get busy. That’s ok!  We just expect you to take care of your comic when you can!
• Your secondary responsibilities include being an active participant in the collective by voting on new member additions, submitting any banners or advertising material necessary for any changes to the SF front page or header, and checking the forum occasionally for updates.
• You are required to display above the fold the rotating header for other comics on the network. This header is customizeable, holding a banner that is 600×29px.
• SF greatly appreciates any donations to help with network upkeep, but it is NOT REQUIRED.

What we DON’T offer you:

• SF admins will not upkeep your site past the initial transfer. We will help you set it up, help you build and design it even, but will not upload your pages for you, or write your news. We expect you to learn the basics of HTML. You’re making a webcomic; that requires some knowledge of the WEB. Tech assistance is of course available for necessary changes, but the day-to-day stuff is your responsibility!
• We don’t pay you for your work. SF is not a publisher, it is a host.  This means it is an OPPORTUNITY for you to gain a larger audience through cross-advertising at no cost to you.
• We do not buy you software. For example, choosing your FTP client is up to you.  We definitely recommend one of the many free ones, like FireFTP for FireFox.

Intellectual Property Rights (after getting lambasted on another forum who thought the deal was too good to be true, we added this just to make sure idiots didn’t take a header):

• SpiderForest claims ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHTS on your work. It belongs to you, period. SF is a collective, not a business.   SF is here to provide a good, solid home for your comic and others like it, not to make money.  Members support each other to help all the comics here grow and succeed. If you doubt this, or think it is too good to be true, we suggest contacting members hosted here and asking them about their experiences.

To apply (starting DECEMBER 1, not today!), email “sfapp (AT) spiderforest.com” with the following:

• Webcomic Title: The name of your webcomic.
• Creator(s) Name(s): Everyone who works on your webcomic(writers/artists).
• Contact: Your e-mail address only. If a team is applying, please designate a leader. 
• Website URL: (DA art galleries not desired! Webcomics are meant to be read in order, and we do not like to search through your gallery to find the next page.  You will also need to be able to handle a SITE, not a gallery, though of course, we will help you! Try DrunkDuck, ComicGenesis or SmackJeeves to see if a website is something that you want. They do the majority of coding for you)
• 5-page Sample: Links to 5-pages of your webcomic. This does not need to be sequential but should be representative of your BEST work.
• Synopsis: In 250 words or less, tell us about your comic.  Do not send an essay or a manuscript.
• Referral: How did you learn about SF applications being open? Has a member asked you to apply?
• Why this comic would make a good addition to SF: Please tell us what you’ll bring to SF.

POOR QUALITY APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. We expect correct grammar and spell-checked applications. Be as brief as possible while still doing your work justice. Longer applications are rarely better.

That last bit up there sounds somewhat snobby, I admit, but guys, really, would YOU accept anyone into a collective who spent an obvious 30 seconds putting this together? No. We all put too much time into what we do to put up with sloppy applications and abject laziness. :( So spell check dammit!

And that’s the end. Please spread the news if you have a news site!

A little break from the norm today.  Instead of how-to’s and why-not’s, I’d like to bring to your attention a most fantastic mile-stone reached by Alejandro “Al-X” Melchor of Nahast: Lands of Strife. As of November 2, Nahast is seven years old (and on the Day of the Dead no less)! Congrats, Al-X, and I’m stealing your promo image!

As an avid reader of Nahast and all things beautiful, intricate fantasy, I encourage you guys to check out his comic and spread the word.  Webcomics that manage to last even one year are rare enough, let alone an entire seven! Al-X has an entire universe for you to explore, with intriguing characters, and, my personal favorite, a strong, kick-ass, female lead. Congrats again, and many more anniversaries to you!

An aside: if your comic is turning 5 or older, feel free to shoot me an email and a promo image so I can help spread the word!  All the young bloods get all the attention nowadays. Send it to: warofwinds@gmail.com

Well, I’m glad that cons have been such a positive experience for me lately, and BCC was no exception! It was a small convention here in Buffalo, NY, and Emil Novak of Queen City Bookstore was gracious enough to give me a free table! As we learned from my previous experience at Corn Hill Arts Fest (where I got a $300 booth for $15!), I do NOT like to let opportunities pass me by.  So go I did, even though it was short notice for me, and even though I have an exam on Tuesday.

Here’s how it went down!

It was from 10-4pm at a Marriott hotel. It was a nice-size room, well set up, with nice large tables! There was no real artist’s alley like at larger conventions, which was kind of nice, since we were right next to the dealers. BCC was NOT an anime convention, it was a comic book convention, so that was what was big. There was a nice diverse crowd though. A lot of parents bringing their children, which was nice to see! I’m sure most comic fans are aware of how the main audience for print comics nowadays is uh…the same audience that liked them 40 years ago.  My Not Alone books are also aimed at a younger crowd, so that was good for me!  I only have 3 left now, AND turned a nice profit on them from the 50 I originally printed out.

My prints did well also. Since this was a traditional comic crowd, I tried to have more “action” stuff this time around. Got a lot of compliments, which was nice. Two groups of people pitched web-business “aids” to me…but I wonder how aware they even are of the webcomic crowd. Tons of people grabbed my business cards too. I don’t think I’ll ever go to a convention without cards. :D

This time around I ALSO had a bunch of original sketches and inked sketches for sale. I was actually a bit sad to part with some of them. I don’t have a scanner here, so I don’t even have a digital copy. BUT, what I’m getting at here for digital artists is that people who go to conventions LOVE originals.  It also turns out that digital art really does help you out on real paper. My sketching was 100% better than when I last tried. It was very confidence inspiring!

I have 3 main pieces of advice this time around:

Always price your items to what is easiest to “break.”  I recommend going by 5’s.  No odd prices! It makes purchases really hard when people keep coming around with 20’s. Be sure to come with small bills yourself.

You look really professional if you have bags for people to use when they buy your stuff. If you’ve got prints, paper bags or tubes work very well. Regular shopping bags for anything else. I forgot both, so I folded up some regular print paper as a mini-holder. That way, no one got their finger grease on my beautiful prints!

Be completely confident in your work! You may sit next to amazing artists who are better than you. So what? It’s YOUR work, and you made it, and no one is going to buy ANYTHING from you if you keep going on and on about how “oh, this isn’t perfect and that sucks and I can do better I swear etc etc emo etc.” The only thing you’ll get is pity-sales by some lady who has too much mercy. This is especially important if you are “out of your element.” Holy freakin’ poopsicle, folks, I don’t read DC/Marvel comics, much less like them! I even dislike most of the movies made off them! I think only 1/20 of BCC goers had even HEARD of webcomics. But damn, I stood out, and that’s how I sold stuff. And, oh yeah, I was the only female comic creator in attendance. Booyeah.  A lot of women were like, “power to ya, girl!” Fun times. Semi-embarrassing, but fun!

The final tally for this small con: $30 spent on prints, $120 made, for a net profit of $90 in 6 hours. Not awesome, but not bad!

My prices: $5/sketch, $10/ink/11×17 poster/Not Alone book, $20/22×34 poster.

Sold 2 inks, 7 books, 3 11×17 posters. Sold ZERO sketches (but gave 2 away) and ZERO 22×34 posters. Either the posters were for the wrong crowd, or $20 is just too expensive (economy? This convention? Unsure!).

Sat next to John and his awesomely-talented son, who have a Facebook comic called Captain Outstanding going! Check that out here. It’s a REALLY funny premise.

Finally, the “character” of the convention was this totally…cliche…youngish dude dressed in a green shirt, a dark brown blazer, and YELLOW CORDUROY PANTS, with a military-green messenger bag and an unkempt beard. Can someone scream “emo poet” a little louder please? I need to bring a camera to these things! That’s all from me! The next con I will be attending is Steel City Comic Con in Pittsburgh, December 4, 5, and 6!

Still working on that review of the CMS iStrip! Those things take me forever, so here’s something shorter, more a warm-up, in the meantime.

Webcomickers like myself are always looking for new, lazy ways to increase visits to their site. Well, here’s a couple you ought to check out if you haven’t already!

COMICRANK: Comicrank not only works as webcomic promotion, but also as a very unique tracking tool. Imagine a toplist where you never have to worry about voting or updating incentives. For some people who have too much to do already, Comicrank is your cup of tea! Its “toplist” is ordered by number of readers only, so yes, I GUESS you could call it a popularity meter, but I would argue it’s subtly different. That point however, is moot.  To sign up for Comicrank, make an account, fill out the information, and put a small button on your site which functions as a tracker (and does not interfere with other tracking codes like Google Analytics, to the best of my knowledge).  If you are a popular or middle-range comic, you’ll stand to attract some new readers because you will be on the front page of the site. If your comic is new or not too popular, it’s ALSO a good tool for un-inflated reader numbers (Kind of mid-way between Project Wonderful stats and Google Analytic stats).

KAPPUKOOHI BANNER EXCHANGE: Ignoring the very strange, tough-to-pronounce name of this banner exchange, it’s a perfect size for just about everyone  (88×31 button).  This is a great way to reach a very diverse audience. Not everyone who signs up for the exchange will be your comic’s same genre, so your banner could be displayed for free on sites whose readers most likely would not normally stumble upon your comic. Since it’s free advertising in exchange for such a small space on your site, I’d recommend trying it out. I’ve gotten modest results, which bodes well for when more people join, since the exchange circle is still very small. For small banner spaces like this, it is IMPERATIVE that your banner have clearly-readable text, if you include text at all. You have a small space to make an impact, so do it right. I recommend checking out the “members” link on the site to see other banners currently up. (Hopefully this may one day take the place of the ill-fated rubifruit exchange.)

SIGN UP ON UPDATE TRACKING SITES: Bunches of these sites exist, and for minimal work, you can start “advertising” your comic update to all visitors on that site by either merely creating an account, or in some cases, inserting a small code on your webpage. For sites that update many days a week, it’s almost a synergistic effect for gaining readers–your link is always prominent on that site. If you update not so often, it still works, just not as well for those who can update more. Then again, that is a rule of thumb with webcomics: the more you can update, the more readers you will have (dependent also on quality, but that’s not what this article is about.)

Anyways, that’s it from me! Today’s article was more for people pretty new to these kinds of self-advertising. I hope it was useful.

Hey all! Sorry for the lack of activity here. Grad school is very time intensive. I’ll have a review of the CMS ‘iStrip” up pretty soon for those interested in it. As a preview, I really did NOT like the system. Anyway, I said I would post an excerpt dealing with a race of creatures called “Ghosts” or “The Ghosting Peoples,” so here it is:

—————-

« Keep one hand on my armor; keep the other in front of you. » Fenni phrased it as advice, though Relan knew it was an order as she slowly stood, using the Keyen as a guide.  Her fingers slowly sifted through his thick fur to find the metal and leather, though it seemed oddly cold.  Or was it just that her fingers were so cold? « Do not use my eyes as a guide, and keep yours shut.  Do not speak, and make no quick movements.  Do you understand, Relan? »

« Fenni, what’s going on? »

« Do you understand? » He pressed.

« Yes, but—» Again he spoke aloud, his language somewhere between a growl and words.  For Relan, it was almost painful to keep her eyes tightly shut, to not see with whom, or what, her kru’shan was conversing.

« What in the seven hells is going on? » She shouted at him, biting her lip and grabbing tight onto his scruff.

« I—I’m sorry, Relan, » he began, « I can’t tell you. » He paused. « They won’t let me. » The Keyen language was passed for a few more seconds above her head, before the leaves around the rustled, and Fenni slowly began to move forward.  « All that they will let me say is, ‘by the Treatise of the Twelve, all who track with the Great Keyens will not be harmed.  They also say by not traveling by river, we cannot freely leave until we are escorted back to human lands. Step up: roots. » Stepping over a root curl just in time, Relan cautiously asked while at the same time knowing Fenni would give no real answer,

« ‘Human’ lands? »

« Many other creatures inhabit these lands, Relan, some far older, others—younger.  Most don’t want others to know they exist.  Humans have a habit of—» He stopped suddenly, anxiety leaking through a shield he was putting up between them.

« Fenni, what are you doing? »

« They don’t want us to talk anymore.  I’m sorry, Relan. From here on out, we walk silent. And hold tight, we might have far to go, » he warned, suddenly picking up his pace to a darting trot.

-           -           -           -           -

Caspian followed Ish’s guardian down a narrow but well-traveled foot path deep inside the hidden grove. Only a little ways in, the Ghost stopped and gestured for the half-blood to continue, alone. Suspicious, he passed beneath the long shadows of two large, stone pillars, one sunken deep in the loam and tilted a little overhead. As though the pillars were a gateway, smaller red-marked, white stones spread in a circle around, and Caspian felt a curious chill as he passed through, but did not let it take his attention.  He could hear voices, angry voices, deep inside.

“…brought an Ayenroki with you? You let him live?” An outraged voice demanded at a near hiss. The half-blood stopped in his tracks, letting his weight settle on the moist ground silently.

“They are sworn to destroy us, Ish!” A different voice snarled. “How could you even think to let him leave here alive?”  A more familiar voice forced itself over the others,

“Shall I have had him killed the moment I discovered what he was?  Now, when Rilketh steals our children and sends them back to kill us? We need allies!” Caspian frowned when another interjected,

“The Ayenroki would never become our allies, Ish, and you know it.”

“I will not accept that!  I will not accept that our debt to our ancestors—our children—will never be paid.” Ish spoke with a fury to quiet everyone else.  “We all will be forfeit unless we survive, and we won’t if the Empire has its way.   I will not have the weight of failing all who have come before on my shoulders.  This curse must end!”  Ish did not wait to see if her words, however much she proclaimed to dislike them, had any impact.  She stormed silently from the circle, walking past Caspian as he stepped silently into the deep shadows, her eyes glowing sullenly red from the light of the moons.  She paused a second, her gaze raking over him and the surrounding trail, before leaving.

Wondering if she knew he had been there the whole time, Caspian stepped back onto the trail after a moment, and continued down to where he had overheard the Ghosts talking.  He knew there could be no more waiting, not if he wanted to get back in time, or alive. Not bothering to fake respect or supplication, he confidently paced down the trail, quickly coming to a small clearing of short, soft grass.  Eleven women talking quietly, angrily, among themselves, immediately noticed his entrance.  Not giving them the time to make the first move, he strode into the center of the circle and said to ruffle them,

“I am Caspian. Why was I summoned?”  He wasn’t too surprised when the ire rose.

“The Ayenroki,” one muttered, her short, striped hair bristling.  From her clothes and pale skin, the half-blood supposed she came from the north.  Wondering if her attitude was colder than the climate to which she was accustomed, he replied,

“Yes. The Ayenroki.  What do you want?”

“Ish was the one who sent for you, not us,” another snarled as they moved around him in a circle, all taller than him, gazes studying every inch of him as they glared down.  He kept his face impassive, fingering the hilts of his swords.  The movement did not go unnoticed.

“He wields swords.  He must be Ayenroki.  No Ghost would dare, not unless they were taken by the Empire.”

“I was not,” he unquestionably stated.

“Yet you bear the mark of a tsen’a vesh,” the pale Ghost pressed again, her mouth stretching into a snarl, “and wear the uniform of an Elite.”

“I don’t have the time to stand here and answer questions about my allegiance!” He suddenly roared.  Using his fist to accentuate, he thundered, “I am an Ayenroki!  I fight with a krandesh! Since the fall of the North I have fought against the Empire!  If you can’t accept that, than Ish is right—your time is over.”  If air could crackle without lightning, Caspian knew it would have then. He continued,

“In the last war, it was the Ayenroki who turned the tide of battle.  Before we joined, nearly all of these lands were held by Rilketh, and since that war, we have kept ourselves separate from the world.  The Isles do not even know what is happening here.  Shi’li has already fallen.  Other lands will follow, and then when you have hidden in your last forest, your last cave, you too will be overrun.  You have no choice but to make allies, and you have no choice but to do so through me.”

Unnoticed during his tirade, another Ghost, a thin, older scout, had come into the circle of the red-marked, white stones.  Talking with one of the eleven women, he turned behind him and growled something low.  From out of the shadows, a tall, shaggy beast paced forward, eyes glowing golden beneath curled horns and armor creaking softly amidst the shaking of leaves above. Their eyes met, and instantly the animal’s narrowed.  Without warning, it bared its fangs and lowered its head, charging forward with a snarl.

Caught off guard, Caspian did not even have time to pull his swords before the beast was on top of him, fangs snapping for his neck.  Dwarfed beneath it, the half-blood’s arms barely shielded his face as he swore, mind racing for a way to fight back.  But almost immediately the animal was dragged off of him, digging its paws in the ground to try to rush forward despite the combined pull of seven of the eleven Ghosts.  Its mouth contorted, forcing out growls that nearly sounded like words, and to Caspian’s amazement, the Ghosts answered with growls of their own.

Warily regaining his feet, the half-blood backed away, pulling out his swords even as the women glared at him.  Soon, the beast calmed down, a soft growl still emanating continuously from its throat.  The Ghosts quickly released it from their holds, and panting slightly, it turned its gaze to them.